Lupus: The Basics

While it may sound like a new
reality show on the Fox Network, it’s really an accurate description of
what happens to your body if you have lupus.

Lupus is an autoimmune
disease.This means that your
antibodies – the very substances that protect you from

diseases and other foreign
invades, are turning on your system and attacking various areas of your body
– including your vital organs. Your immune system is, in fact, in a state
of hyperdrive, pumping out antibodies needlessly.

As with so many other
diseases, medical experts are in the dark about the exact cause of Lupus.It is genetic, which means if one person in your family has it, your
chances of developing it are greater.

The name itself derives from
one the original and most notable symptoms of the disease a rash that
appears usually on the face of an individual with the disease.The rash looked like a wolf bite.Today, the rash reminds people more of a butterfly.

Technically, lupus is not a
disease, but a series of disorders.And
this is exactly what makes diagnosing the disorder so difficulty.Many of the symptoms can be easily misdiagnosed for another disease
or even ignored altogether.

Approximately 1.5 million
American suffer with some form and varying severity of this disorder.But here, though, is the most stunning of news: the incidence of
lupus has tripled since 1970.

If you’re a woman, you’re
more likely to develop lupus than a man.For every 10 individuals who develop this disorder, only one of them
is male.The other nine are
female. And you’re especially vulnerable if you’re a woman of
childbearing years – between the ages of 15 and 40.(This is one of the reasons why some medical experts suspect that the
onset of lupus is related to a woman’s hormone levels.)

Lupus, for all of its
potential problems, has a lingering bad “rap” from nearly a generation
ago.As recently as 30 years
ago, medical experts couldn’t detect the disorder early enough. By the
time the medical experts knew what was happening, all too often, advanced
kidney disease had set in.today,
things have changed greatly.Not
only does modern medicine has the resources to detect this disorder much
earlier, but it now can control this group of problems with greater ease.

According to the Centers for
Disease Control, the number of deaths attributed to this disorder has
climbed from 879 in 1979 to 1, 406 in 1998. Not only that, but nearly one
third of these deaths occurred in men and women who were younger than 45
years of age.

Three main kinds of lupus are
currently identified by specialists.The
first is systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).This is the most common and, in fact, the most serious form of the
disorder.SLE frequently is the
cause of painful, swollen joints as well as skin rashes, extreme fatigue and
kidney damage.The other two
forms of the disorder are discoid lupus erythematosus and drug-induced
lupus.

Note: Some statements in this article may not be
approved by the FDA. This article is for informational purposes only and
should not be taken as professional medical advice.